New York's February Bar Exam Results Reveal Worst Pass Rates In More Than A Decade

Ugh. Just how terrible are the results this time?

failedThe results for the February 2016 administration of the New York bar exam are out, and they really aren’t pretty. In fact, they’re hideous.

Congratulations to you if you happened to pass the New York bar exam this time around, because many of your peers — 59 percent of them — did not. Once again, please reach out and thank your law school for admitting subpar students, because your colleagues’ failure is making your success look even better.

What went wrong here? According to the New York State Board of Law Examiners, 4,193 examinees sat for the test this winter. Of those examinees, only 41 percent passed the New York bar exam. The overall pass rate for first-time takers was 55 percent.

Look at these New York bar statistics to see how awful the February 2016 results are:

Year All Candidates All First-Time Takers All First-Time ABA Takers
February 2016 41 percent passed 55 percent passed 67 percent passed
February 2015 43 percent passed 56 percent passed 70 percent passed
February 2014 47 percent passed 62 percent passed 74 percent passed
February 2013 50 percent passed 64 percent passed 75 percent passed
February 2012 44 percent passed 59 percent passed 69 percent passed
February 2011 48 percent passed 63 percent passed 77 percent passed
February 2010 50 percent passed 67 percent passed 81 percent passed
February 2009 42 percent passed 60 percent passed 73 percent passed
February 2008 50 percent passed 64 percent passed 76 percent passed
February 2007 44 percent passed 61 percent passed 74 percent passed
February 2006 46 percent passed 61 percent passed 74 percent passed
February 2005 47 percent passed 62 percent passed 72 percent passed
February 2004 45 percent passed 58 percent passed 67 percent passed

As we noted when the July 2015 New York bar exam results were released, even when the results were bad in the past, they were never this bad.

Some will again blame the record high number of foreign-educated candidates who took the exam for these horrendous results. For the February 2016 exam, 1,848 foreign-educated examinees sat for the test, accounting for 44 percent of all candidates who took the exam. The pass rate for this group was an astoundingly low 30 percent. While these test-takers dragged down the overall pass rate and overall pass rate for first-time takers, the pass rate for all first-time takers from ABA-accredited law schools doesn’t lie. That number dropped by 3 percent between 2015 and 2016, and it represents the lowest percentage of first-time takers from ABA-accredited law schools to have passed the exam since February 2004.

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Law schools MUST stop scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to admitting students. Admission standards MUST be raised to put a stop to this.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we will repeat this statement for the umpteenth time: “Until law schools realize they’re doing a disservice to everyone — their students, their graduates, and their graduates’ future clients — things will only continue to get worse.” Do your jobs. End this misery once and for all.

Press Release: NY Bar Exam Results – February 2016 [New York Board of Law Examiners]


Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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